"This book received the Photographic Book of the Year 2003 Award and was shortlisted for the Most Beautiful Czech Books 2002 Award. It continues in the series opened by the book Frantisek Drtikol "Journals and Letters 1914–1918, Dedicated to Eliska Janska", a compilation of authentic, fully preserved texts. The aim was to provide another complete text of unique character which can additionally be understood as the artist's statement as well as a handbook for students of photography, contributing to a deeper understanding of Frantisek Drtikol's photographic methods. Drtikol sought to pass on his lifelong experience in courses of photography which he organised in his studio in the 1930s."--th publisher
The book is divided into 29 chapters (The Art of Photography, Model, Portraiture, A Bit of Psychology, Every Detail, A Shadow Cast, Light, Simple Motif...). Every chapter includes an example of the artist's photographic work, chosen to reinforce the basic idea that is being expressed in the text. The afterword is a joined commentary by Anna Farova and Stanislav Dolezal.
"Czech photographer Frantis¡ek Drtikol (1883–1961) reinvented the genre of nude photography for the early twentieth century. Drtikol opened his Prague studio in 1907, and his nudes from this early period convey the dreamy eroticism of Art Nouveau and the foreboding accents of Prague Symbolism that hew as to return to throughout his somewhat brief career (Drtikol abandoned photography for painting in 1935, and it was not until curator Anna Fárová’s now legendary 1972 Prague exhibition that this work was rediscovered by a broader public)."